


now you’re under my skin (i’m feeling like i’m seventeen)

by allisonattheorpheum



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:13:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28615635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allisonattheorpheum/pseuds/allisonattheorpheum
Summary: “we don’t have any music,” julie protests. luke smirks, puts his other hand on the small of her back and pulls her closer. she melts into his touch.“that’s the good thing about me and you,” luke says. he lifts their hands (julie will never get tired of the way their fingers look intertwined) and touches them first to his chest, then to hers. “we’ve got music wherever we go.”(or two times julie and luke slow dance)
Relationships: Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 20
Kudos: 152





	now you’re under my skin (i’m feeling like i’m seventeen)

**Author's Note:**

> title and inspiration from “seventeen” by léon
> 
> thank you to the girls in my group chat for suggestions and input (especially [alexmercers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/merceralexs/pseuds/merceralexs)).

the first time julie dances with luke, it’s in her head. it’s beautiful, mesmerizing, the way their bodies move so gracefully around each other, the song julie hasn’t yet put to paper the perfect accompaniment. it’s beautiful, yeah, but it’s also terrifying, because there’s this cat-and-mouse game, this unsaid _everything_ , between the two of them and daydreaming about luke while she’s dancing with another guy, well, that doesn’t help her situation any.

the second time julie dances with luke, it’s his idea. they’re in the studio, sitting sideways on the couch so they’re facing each other, knees touching. julie still can’t wrap her head around it sometimes, how she can reach out her hand and feel something, feel _luke_ , instead of just air. the performance at the orpheum was a week ago, and julie relishes every brush against him as if it was the first.

“do you like this?” julie asks. she hums a few bars of a melody that has been bouncing around in her head for a while. 

“i like anything you come up with, you know that,” luke says. julie rolls her eyes.”i actually had an idea, too.”

julie sits up a little straighter; she loves hearing luke’s songs and reading his lyrics, loves getting to know the inner workings of his mind. luke starts humming, taps his index finger in rhythm against julie’s knee. the melody seems vaguely familiar, slower than what he normally comes up with.

luke stops humming. “hey, jules?” she _hmm_ s, still lost in luke’s song. “you ever dance with someone before?”

that pulls julie out of her head; she laughs and flicks his knee, the resistance against her finger grounding her in this electric new _thing_ between them. “that’s a silly question,” she says. “i dance with flynn all the time.”

“not what i meant,” luke says. he tucks his chin into his chest, suddenly bashful. “have you ever slow danced with someone? someone important.”

julie arches an eyebrow. “i guess at a wedding or something, maybe. a school dance? i don’t know.”

luke turns and uncrosses his legs, stands up and reaches his hand out towards julie. “will you dance with me?” he asks.

julie smiles and puts her hand in his. the callouses on his fingers brush against her palm and she can’t help the shiver that runs down her spine. “why?”

he pulls her off of the couch and leads her into the empty space in the middle of the studio, rose’s piano serving as their backdrop. “because we can. we don’t know how long this’ll last, right? i wanna make the most of it.”

“we don’t have any music,” julie protests. luke smirks, puts his other hand on the small of her back and pulls her closer. she melts into his touch.

“that’s the good thing about me and you,” luke says. he lifts their hands (julie will never get tired of the way their fingers look intertwined) and touches them first to his chest, then to hers. “we’ve got music wherever we go.”

julie’s heart threatens to beat right out of her chest. luke starts humming again, the same melody as before, and starts dancing. julie lets him lead and he’s clumsy, at first, but eases into a rhythm after a little while. his hand on her back never moves but his index finger draws little circles against her spine in time with his song.

it’s during the chorus, she assumes, when it hits her. this isn’t luke’s song at all -- it’s hers, from the daydream she’d played back too many times to count. she stumbles, foot rolling into luke’s instead of gliding right through it.

“luke,” she says. “luke, stop.”

he laughs, finally moves his hand off of her back and raises the other that holds hers, takes a step back and motions for her to spin. she does, half-heartedly.

“don’t worry about it, boss,” he says. “we all stumble.”

she looks at him, pushes as much seriousness into her expression as she can. “where did you hear that song?”

“oh.” luke smiles. “so, about that.” he pulls her into him again, lets go of her hand and drapes both arms over her shoulders. the warmth of his skin through her t-shirt is enough to buckle her knees. “when you were baking cupcakes for carlos’ team the other day, i poofed in. they smelled so good, jules…” he trails off, licks his lips as if he can taste the rich chocolate. 

julie thinks back and, sure enough, the memory’s as clear as anything. she had been waiting for the first batch of cupcakes to cool while the second baked; she’d let herself go back to that candle-lit room, the words of the song -- “perfect harmony,” she’d called it -- filling the quiet kitchen.

“but you were singing this song,” luke’s voice pulls her back to the present. “and you seemed so, i don’t know, so into it, i didn’t want to interrupt. i just listened for a while and poofed back out.”

he starts to dance again, shifting his weight back and forth. julie relents and puts her hands on his hips; their eyes lock together and julie thinks she might float away from happiness if luke’s arms weren’t holding her still.

“check this out, though,” luke says. “i added a sweet bridge.” he hums a few bars and then says, “this is your part: _i feel your rhythm in my heart_ .” his voice is incredible, clear but still on the verge of broken. “and then i echo with this: _you are my brightest, burning star_.” he trails off, laces his fingers behind her neck. “what do you think?”

“it’s good, luke,” she says. she means it. she sings the line he said was hers and it’s true, she realizes: his rhythm, his heart is always with hers. “then you come in with what?” she remembers the line, of course she does, but wants to hear him sing it again. he does, smiles around the words.

“so i’m your star, then?” she asks. she puts a little variation into their back-and-forth sway of a dance, snakes her upper body so luke’s arms move up and down with the motion of her shoulders.

“yeah, yeah, jules,” luke says. “mock me all you want.”

she thinks she sees the faint traces of a blush on luke’s cheeks -- as much as a ghost _can_ blush, of course. “not mocking at all,” she says, voice quiet. “now as your _star_ , i demand that you spin me.”

he laughs, does as she asks. her hair brushes against his face as she twirls and she thinks that she’d be perfectly fine if they just stayed like this for as long as they had together, laughing and dancing in the studio’s sunset light. 

*

julie is seventeen, at the tail end of her senior year. her prom is hours away and luke has been strictly forbidden from entering her room (via the door or otherwise) while she and flynn get ready. in the time they’ve been a band, luke has seen all sorts of different outfits on julie; but the idea of her all made up and fancy for prom? he’s not sure his heart can handle it. 

reggie and alex watch him from where they’re sitting in the loft, legs dangling down. luke hasn’t moved from the couch since julie told him to _be patient_ a while ago. “dude,” reggie had said earlier. “i’m not even sure we actually weigh anything, but the shape of your body is going to be a permanent feature of those cushions.”

the prom committee had asked the band to play, but julie said no. they’d had a lot of opportunities since the orpheum, but julie always kept school separate and had said she wanted prom to be her own thing. luke respected that, even if it meant he couldn’t hang out with her for a while. besides, since julie’s date being invisible was not an option, he’d have time to set up something special for after she got home.

finally, a knock comes at the garage’s barn doors. “alex! reggie! we’re ready,” flynn says. even though she can only see them some of the time, she never hesitates in bossing them around. luke watches as his bandmates poof down to the doors, his heart a hammer in his chest.

“ready, dude?” alex asks. luke nods, takes a deep breath. reggie clears his throat and says, in his best announcer voice, “presenting miss julie molina.” he and alex open the doors, painstakingly slow. luke bites his tongue to keep himself from yelling at them to hurry up. 

when the doors open enough so that luke can see julie, though, everything else fades to black. he stands up and takes a few steps towards the doors. she is wearing a dark purple dress that falls to the floor, with layers of some poofy fabric that luke doesn’t know the name of extending the skirt to a princess-like volume. the top of the dress is covered in glitter and sparkles. a white dahlia brooch rests against her heart. 

luke smiles, gets over his hesitation and walks the rest of the way to his girl. “you look incredible,” he says. he reaches out and fluffs up her skirt; julie laughs and does a little curtsy, spins around. “come here,” he says again, trying to hide the breathiness in his voice. 

julie closes the distance between them and luke takes her face in his hands, runs his thumbs over her shimmery cheeks. “is it alright then?” she asks. 

luke laughs. “alright? jules, you’re beautiful. everyone’s gonna be looking at you.” her hair is down, pieces pulled back from her face with glittery pins. he runs his fingers through it; still in awe that over a year later, he can do so. 

“we should get going, julie,” flynn says from by the door. she looks great, too, in a tailored suit with platform sneakers, but luke only has eyes for one girl. 

“yeah, let’s go,” julie says. she leans into luke for a hug and he wraps his arms around her, breathes in her shampoo, roses with a hint of salty ocean water. “i’ll see you after, okay?” she asks, the exhale of her words warm against his neck. 

he nods, reluctantly ends the hug. “yeah,” he says. “i’ll be waiting. have fun, boss.” 

as she walks away, she blows him a kiss. luke grabs it out of the air and mimes putting it in the pocket of his jeans. he ignores reggie and alex as they struggle to hold in their laughter. “oh, yeah,” he calls after julie. “kill it on the dance floor!”

while julie’s gone, luke gets to work. through various means, the boys have accumulated a _lot_ of candles, and they spend way too long making sure they are placed perfectly in the studio. luke puts a cd in the stereo system, cues up a ballad from the 90s. alex is in charge of making sure reggie doesn’t set any plants on fire as he lights each candle, shadows flickering throughout the studio. flynn had brought luke a bouquet earlier and he puts it on top of the piano, within reach.

after everything is set up, alex and reggie poof out, leaving luke to wait out the rest of the night alone. first things first: his outfit. he has a new shirt and dress pants, again courtesy of flynn. he gets changed, leaves the top few buttons undone (after the hollywood ghost club, he’d never button his shirts all the way up again). he runs his hands through his hair, making sure it’s not completely unruly.

once he’s ready, he sits, bounces his knee up and down for a while. he grabs his guitar, works on a new song. he thinks about julie, obviously, and how far they’ve come since that night when he and the guys were summoned from the dark room. 

eventually, he hears steps approaching the open studio doors. “luke?” julie calls. “i’m back.”

he jumps off the couch and grabs the bouquet off of the piano, bounces on his toes in excitement. “i’m in here, jules,” he says.

when she walks in this time, he knows what to expect, but that doesn’t change the fact that his breath still gets taken away. she smiles when she sees him, doesn’t stop smiling as she looks around at all of the candles. 

“wow,” she says. she sets down her purse and walks to luke. “you did this for me?”

luke holds out the flowers and nods. “these are for you,” his voice shakes. “flynn helped me… get them.”

julie takes the bouquet and brings it to her nose, laughs when a few petals tickle her. “they’re great, luke, thanks.”

he walks over to the stereo and presses play. “may i have this dance?” he asks, holding out his hand. julie giggles, the sound like a symphony to luke. she puts the bouquet on the couch and crosses to the center of the studio.

“you couldn’t have picked a song from this century?” she asks as she waits for luke to reach her. 

“hey,” he says, taking her hand and pulling her close. “you just had hours of your music. this is my party.”

every time luke touches julie, it’s like the first time. as he laces their fingers together and wraps his other arm around her, it’s like lightning striking the same place twice. he still can’t believe that he gets to experience this, experience _her_ every day.

they sway to the music, luke singing along. the candlelight dances along julie’s face and luke is mesmerized by the way it catches in her eyes, like they’re on fire. she catches him watching her and smirks, pulls back a little and lets him dip her. 

“thanks for being patient,” she says. “with school and everything. i know you have your record deal dreams.” 

luke rests his forehead against hers, spins them around so her skirt dances with them. “let’s not talk right now,” he says. he pulls back a little and presses a kiss to her cheek, her skin warm under his lips. 

julie moves so their foreheads are touching again, looks him in the eyes. “since when are you the boss?”

luke laughs and brings a hand up to rest on the back of her neck. “things change, julie. now spin me.

\--


End file.
